Neurotically Yours

"You wanna know why everything turned out so wrong? Because you didn't take my advice and you're fucking stupid."

—Foamy, "Foamy's Rant"

Neurotically Yours (the title comes from 'Writer's Block,' in which Germaine signs her poem Neurotically Yours after going insane,) is an online cartoon series created, animated, starring, voiced by, and generally fueled by Jonanthan Ian Mathers (also known as J.I.M). Episodes are one to three minutes long and feature an ongoing storyline with some Character Development for nominal characters (generally Germaine and sometimes Foamy, since the other characters), while the rest feature hyper-aggressive, comically exaggerated rants by Foamy about various annoyances and what he considers to be the stupidity of humans.

The show is notable for:

its manner of subverting cultural expectations involving a variety of sensitive issues (particularly involving gender roles);
being extremely politically incorrect (making a point to mock acceptable and unacceptable targets equally);
its tendency to become eccentric author tract and;
large globs of bodily fluids.

It's much better than it sounds.

Characters

Foamy: Jerkass to top them all. Convinced that Humans Are Morons. Intends to conquer the world through his "squirrely wrath" and the spread of his card cult. Loves carbs, coffee, and cream cheese.
Germaine: Gothic/punk misunderstood poet, and the closest the series has to a Straight Man. She is a passionate poet, and constantly frustrated with the problem of wanting to earn a living through her art and the expenses of life in New york city. Regularly suicidally depressed and earning her living through the sex industry, she also frequently struggles with being treated like a sex object while using her sexuality to manipulate men for profit or entertainment. Germaine had, at one point, gained a lot of weight and shaved off all her hair in an effort to get less men staring at her or making lewd comments. It worked for a while, but Germaine has recently resorted to prostitution in order to pay the rent and eventually slipping into extreme depression. She had left New York and gone off backpacking in an effort to turn her life around. She is also bright, very tough (when not depressed) and the most empathic and well-balanced character in the series. She did once murder a small child for his candy, though.
Pilz-E: Jewish Squirrel. Described by Foamy as "Woody Allen on Crack" he is a neurotic, pill popping nutcase. Has every mental disease known to man (apparently they're all transmittable to rodents), though Germaine and Pilz-E himself has hinted a few times that all his diseases are psychosomatic, and he's just a horrible hypochondriac, and the other half of the diseases he isn't making up are jut side-effects of his other pills. Frequently used as a Author Tract on American society's over-reliance on prescribed medication.
Begley: British punk squirrel. Anarchic, perverted and sporting a purple mohawk, he nonetheless aims to be extremely polite and generally conform to as many American stereotypes of English people as he can. A firm fan favourite, despite not appearing in many episodes and once raping Germaine with a voodoo doll.
The Hatta': Stereotypically black squirrel. Token Minority and Angry Black Man (er...squirrel). " I is mad, and I is a crazy motherf***er when it comes to tea". Possibly the most offensively stereotypical character on the show.
Franklin: Brainwashed chain coffeehouse employee and Camp Gay. Frequently ends his sentences with "bitch", has worn Germaine's underwear at least once. Foamy hates him more than humans in general, and once ( when Franklin tried to backtalk him) carved a shopping list on Franklin's back. "It just says cream cheese, over and over."
Anchovie: Pizza guy and Germaine's stalker. Sends Germaine perverted gifts, takes photos of her when she's not looking and writes her creepy letters and poetry. Although he is equally interested in Germaine regardless of her weight (which has ranged from stick thin to morbidly obese), he is less interested in her well-being than her potential as a sex object. There are suggestions that Germaine and Anchovie have had paid sexual encounters and her attitude towards him is generally annoyance
Mammed Udi: A person from India working as the only person in computer tech support for an outsourced company on all hours of the day. Generally is of no help by offering solutions that generally do not work or things people could have done themselves. Also gets electrocuted by a shocky monkey if he works too slow. On his 5th appearance, he gets fired (and ate the shocky monkey) . He now works a variety of odd jobs, including support hotlines and running a pharmacy. Generally overworked and not particularly interested in his job.

There are a few recurring elements to the series:

Fan Mail: Foamy hates it, but is forced to answer it. For the first few episodes, Foamy is friendly and excited, but undergoes an Creator Breakdown, during which he burns his set. He gradually recovers, and now just spends it insulting his letter-writing fandom.
Rants: Foamy hates X, and this is why.

The show recently rebooted (as of this writing, three episodes have aired since Germaine literally hit the Reset Button), with updated character designs and plans to incorporate aspects of something like six other projects Mathers has sporadically worked on since NY's inception (so that he's only got the one show to worry about).

Tropes used in Neurotically Yours include:

A God Am I: Just look at the above picture!
- "Reboot Button" implies that it may very well be true.
All Men Are Perverts: Brought up frequently, because according to Foamy, Germaine is supposed to represent the every woman who is constantly harassed by the every guy, who sees her as a sex object and not a person.
- The subject of one of Foamy's rants as well; much of the fanmail is about wanting to see Germaine naked.
Animesque: The rebooted series art style gives this off somewhat.
Art Evolution: Not so much with Foamy, whose Flash model has basically been the same since the start, but Germaine BIG TIME, so much so that it's a plot point now how much Germaine has changed.
- The way the cartoons are animated is different now as well. Foamy's eyes and arms used to just slowly float up or down depending on which way he moved them, but now his movements are much more quick and snap back instead of just floating aimlessly off.
- Franklin went from this to this.
- And now this!
Art Shift: At the end of "Reboot Button", the art style goes back to the original style of the series, ten years ago. This, in turn, leads to a drastic Art Evolution for series's reboot, where all the characters are redesigned to be a highly refined version of how they looked (or would have looked) in the very first episode.
Ascended Extra: Jack and Roswell.
Author Avatar: Foamy appears to be one of these in the rant episodes.
Berserk Button: Foamy has so many to the point where he should be a plain ol' berserker
- Begley being referred to as Bentley seems to function as this as well ("It's Begley! Beg-LEY! I'm not a butler, y'know, you fuckin' wankers...!")
Beware the Nice Ones: Begley seems like the nicest of the squirrels, but piss him off and you're in for a world of hurt.
- Pilz-E is also usually very nice, but he lacks anything even remotely resembling lucidity. The result is that he might hurt others unintentionally (like, for example, giving a shitload of tranquilizers to infants).
Big Applesauce: In Foamy Fan Mail XIV, Foamy explains that Germaine's slutty acts are because of how expensive it is to live here.
Bi the Way: In "The Move" Germaine reveals she's open to hooking up with another girl, but she'd have to have huge T&A.
Blood Bath: An early short with Germaine getting attacked by the Ghostface Killer from the Scream movies ends with Germaine continuing her bath in the killer's own blood while his body is seen hanging from the ceiling in the background.
Breakout Character: Foamy started out as Germaine's pet and sidekick. The pet thing is still technically true.
- In the very recent episodes, he might not even count as that anymore. After Germaine left home to go on a trip of self-discovery, Foamy started paying for the apartment himself with his cult money. Even though she eventually came back, he's basically destroyed the definition of "pet".
Breast Physics: Begley and Germaine have a discussion about this.
Buffy-Speak: Pilz-E, constantly. "Look at that, her head went boom like a big thing gone exploded-like thing, with the things and the ch-ch-ch-choooong."
Butt Monkey: Mostly Germaine, sometimes literally.
Catch Phrase: Foamy, usually using "Squirrely Wrath" and "Fat Bastard"
Cerebus Syndrome: The recent Germaine arc has become a lot more serious, with some episodes featuring almost no humour. The author has stated this will be temporary, though.
Character Development: Germaine mostly, though very subtle if you haven't been paying attention to the series. Germaine starts off as a stereotypical jaded goth chick who thinks everyone's stupid and All Men Are Perverts while secretly having sexual fantasies and fetishes she routinely denies when Foamy questions her about it. It got to the point where she enjoyed the sexual acts but still hated how men treated her like garbage, so she gained a ton of weight in order to make herself less appealing, only to now have guys chase her even more because of the fat ass and huge breasts she obtained from being so fat. After sliding into an extreme depression, Germaine decides to leave the city and get herself back together.
Christmas Special: Averted. Foamy hates Holiday Specials, and devotes an entire episode to complaining about them.
Cluster F-Bomb: Foamy does this a lot.
Comically Missing the Point: In Meditational Melee, Germaine tells Foamy that people in the south use squirrels for chili meat. He responds by saying that he likes chili.
Dead Baby Comedy: Including an episode with actual dead babies.
- Apparently, they're very hard to sweep up once they've hit Rigor mortis.
Deadpan Snarker: Germaine and Foamy, Up to Eleven.
Did Not Do the Research: Foamy once did a rant on anime, mentioning that the only one to get anime right (in his opinion) was that last airbender guy. He then goes on to say that anime is Japanese and he hates it when Americans attempt to do it.
Dumb Blonde : Germaine. During her travel logs, her hair grew back un-dyed, revealing her to be a natural blonde. Explained a whole lot...
Early-Bird Cameo: Before Mammed Udi officially popped up in the Tech Support subseries, you can see him here
Equivalent Exchange: Parodied via a cursed toaster. Put something in, and something possibly completely unrelated comes out in timespans that are as consistent as water if the title cards are to be believed.
Even Evil Has Standards: In Nuts to You Foamy avoids killing a baby despite Pilz-E's constant prodding.
- Although Foamy did mention that he just thought it would be funny if the baby had to grow up knowing its mother was murdered. If anything, it's just another Moral Event Horizon in the life of Foamy the squirrel.
Everything's Better with Monkeys: The shocky monkey who hits Mammed Udi when he doesn't work fast enough
Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels
Fan Service: Played straight. Averted. Inverted. Subverted. Sometimes all in the same clip.
Fat Bastard: Foamy calls Germaine this very often and now has a reason to; Germaine gained a lot of weight in recent episodes.
Flanderization: Germaine, going from a typical angsty art-school Goth in the early episodes, to a Wangsty Straw Feminist more recently.
- Kind of subverted with Foamy. He started out speaking really fast and acting with a lot of hyperactive tendencies. Ones Pillz-E came along Foamy slowed and calmed down, probably to distinguish the two.
Flat Character: Mutie is just ludicrously big-breasted eye candy put in DVD-exclusive episodes to entice horny guys into buying the DVDs.
- Foamy also explained in "Foamy Fan Mail XIII" the entire "Mutie" arc was supposed to be about how breasts are useless.
Gag Boobs: At some point during her weight gain Germaine stopped getting fat like a normal person, and the weight all went to her breasts. Each one is now larger than her head, and they literally hang down to her waist, unobstructed by anything so realistic as a protruding belly.
Gainaxing: In the reboot, Germaine's breasts bounce every time she talks.
Hammerspace: Occurs often with Foamy and Pilz-E during their conversations where they just pull out random items related to the topic they're talking about, although it's more like a prop since the characters hardly use what they pull out.
Hates Everyone Equally: Foamy (Germaine seems to be sliding towards this)
Head Pet: Foamy sometimes does this to Germaine.
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Subverted with Germaine, who, though generally a decent person, is extremely cynical. Considering her career as a plus-sized pornstar and call girl seems to be panning out quite profitably, but she's really only doing it because she would rather be writing poetry, the subversion is entirely understandable.
Humans Are Morons: Foamy's view of the world around him is very much this.
Hypocritical Humor: JIM continually complains about perverted fans sexualizing Germaine, yet as the series goes on he's put her in more and more sexual situations.
- Which he now explains that Germaine going from a feminist to blatant whore was a part of her character development all along, given away by the subtext of several episodes. He explains it here.
- Germaine has complained a number of times about men only caring about women's looks, but apparently it's okay for her. See Bi the Way.
Gasshole: Germaine. Her belching out loud at random times has become a Running Gag since "Gas-E-Pop", in which she drank a bottle of the episode's titular soda and burped constantly for the rest of the episode.
Jerkass: Foamy. And how.
- Pretty much everybody has jerkass tendencies, except Mutie. Germaine lays into the squirrels all the time (although they probably deserve a lot of this) and has killed at least three people solely because they annoyed her. Foamy mutilates and maims people for fun ( with his nut-tossing) and bosses around and insults Germaine all the time. Begley raped (or sexually tortured, depending on your interpretation) Germaine with a voodoo doll, programmed a sex doll to assault Anchovie, and helped Pill-z and Foamy tie down Germaine and beat her to a pulp. The Hatter constantly accuses white people of being racist, solely so they'll shut up and walk away. Mammed Udi is sick of all the stupid people calling his helplines and only working for the money, and isn't afraid to let them know.
Jump the Shark: What fans and critics felt like the newest Germaine story arc was doing to NY. The Move and it's Art Evolution doesn't seem to be helping it's case either.
Keet: Pilz-E.
Killed Off for Real: Germaine's mute roommate Mutie. Was last seen sunbathing in the episode "Hot enough for you." Near the end, she's drug underwater by a giant tentacle. Hasn't appeared since.
Lampshade Hanging: In the Achievements rant, Begley shows up and gets the achievement Obscure character reference
The Mean Brit: Begley in some of his appearances (his catchphrase is "Wanker!")
Mega Corp: StarShmucks. They insist on using pretentious fake french names for their coffee, charge over three times the standard price, drive literally every single independent coffee shop out of business via aggressive marketing and advertising, has all their employees forcibly given a neural implant that makes them spout inane slogans and promotional advertisements, and assassinates Franklin simply because he couldn't get Foamy to purchase their new "Trendi" size. (He got better)
- Foamy is convinced WalkMart is this.
Motor Mouth: Foamy often talks non-stop. Pilz-E is worse since he talks twice as fast as Foamy.
Never Speak Ill of the Dead: One episode is based around subverting this.
No Periods, Period: Averted with "Chamber of Human Horrors," due to Foamy's mention of Germaine's tampons.
Not So Stoic: In the episode introducing Germaine's new "bald" look, the normally calm (if snarky) Germaine caps off her justification rant with a "SO FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING FUCKER!!"
Oh God, with the Verbing!: Used pretty much exclusively by Pilz-E.
Playing with Fire: Foamy does this in one fan mail episode where he sets the pile of fan mail on fire after getting annoyed by people sending him more mail when he asked them not to send any more. He still had to answer mail in the episode after that, only with the background charred to a crisp due to his fire antics.
Pet the Dog: In a roundabout way, "Reboot Button" is Foamy saying to Germaine "I think you can do better, I think you should do better and I think you WILL do better."
The Plan- According to the most recent fan mail segment, Germaine's recent appearance change is part of some sort of scheme Foamy has concocted.
- Evil Plan: Said scheme has recently been elaborated on in Foamy's character bio from the official website, and it is Crazy Awesome. Direct quote: "He lives with Germaine, his goth chick owner, as her unassuming pet... when in reality, he's plotting to enlighten the world through infallible logic and enforce that logic with an army of robots created from discarded automatons and the brains of his former dead owners. Crazy, no?"
Ping-Pong Naivete: Foamy himself on occasion, particularly in "A Pair of Pants":

(Foamy is holding up a pair of trousers with "Cock-Master" written on the seat of them)
Germaine: "Cock-Master"? I think I'll pass.
Foamy: Why? What's wrong with advertising that you are in control of a large farm bird?
Germaine: Uh... that's not what it means.

- Later in the same episode:

Foamy: (holding up a pair with "Big Pussy" written on them) What about this then? It shows your appreciation for giant cats!

- Also, think about the following line:

"You are looking for a guy named Richard!"

Quit Your Whining: Mammed's message to Germaine in "Suicide Hotline." Well, that and "Get a job!"
Rant Comedy: Foamy's Rants
Really Seven Hundred Years Old: According to "Secrets of the Foamy cult" Foamy has existed since at least the 1920's.
- Foamy reconfirms this in the "Reboot Button" episode, claiming to Germaine he has lived for at least 400 years.
Refuge in Audacity: Going hand in hand with...
Refuge in Vulgarity
Reset Button: Foamy's Reboot Button. He gives this to owners who he deems worthy of a 2nd chance at life so they can avoid any mistakes they made in the past 10 years of their life, via deja vu, when they are reincarnated in the past. Everyone else who isn't given this chance dies from their own stupidity. Germaine presses the button and is sent back 10 years to the very first episode of the series, art style and all! Once Germaine's deja vu kicks in, she starts to do things differently compared to how her old self had done when the first episode originally aired.
- The episodes since then are now in a new art style to reflect the change in the series' direction, which Foamy states that if things don't work out here, they can just revert everything back to the way it was before the reboot by rebooting the reboot!
Rule 34: One of the many reasons of Germaine's Flanderization and another one of Foamy's Berserk Buttons.
Running Gag: Every episode that shows Germaine taking a bath ends with her rubber duck exploding in blood. Lampshaded by Foamy once when he wonders why Germaine keeps buying the exploding ducks.
- A more recent one is where Germaine will have something "spew" something on her or in her mouth. It was even combined with the above in "Academic Alert."
- See Gasshole above.
Sir Swearsalot: Foamy
Springtime for Hitler: Germaine's recent efforts to make herself less desirable have just made her even more desirable.
- Well. They've made her less desirable to the people who motivated the change in the first place. They just sent her careening into an entirely new fetish she didn't even realize existed. Of course, the reboot reveals she shares this fetish.
Stalker with a Crush: Anchovie (the pizza guy).
Story Arc: Two at the same time right before the reboot: Foamy's cult finally going big, and Germaine's Journey to Find Oneself.
Straw Feminist: Germaine, at times.
Talking to Himself: J.I.M. voices all male characters (whether they're squirrels, record-store employees or tofu,) on the show with a modified voice (the only exception being the aforementioned nameless record store worker from 4-Y Records, his voice is JIM's real voice) so its obvious this trope would come up.
Talking with Signs: Foamy is reduced to this in the episode "User Agreement".
The Cuckoolander Was Right: Roswell, the talking dog from "Secrets of the Foamy Cult". Claimed Foamy was some kind of powerful being that has existed since the 1920's...he was right in a way. Foamy has existed for over 400 years.
This Loser Is You: The pizza guy and every other pervert who lusts over Germaine.
Trademark Favorite Food: Foamy with bagels and cream cheese. He also likes pancakes with obscene amounts of syrup.
Took a Level in Badass: Germaine of all people. In the episode, Clothes Donation, Germaine explains to Foamy that she stabbed a guy's penis with a pencil after he sexually assaulted her and that she will set the pizza guy's balls on fire if they ever meet up again. Foamy, who would normally insult Germaine, actually approves of all this.
Transplant: J.I.M. has cancelled all his other series and the characters from those are now in the cast of the reboot.
Unexplained Recovery: Franklin in "Last Coffee House Stand".
Verbal Tic: Pilz-E tends to insert sound effects into his rapid-fire speech
Viewers are Morons: Mathers released a cartoon in which Foamy slowly and carefully walks you through Germaine's character development from the earliest cartoons to the current status quo, and berates you for needing him to hold your hand through this stupid cartoon instead of getting all this when it happened. Apparently the bulk of NY's audience is comprised of the people it routinely mocks and derides as wastes of humanity.
- It's even more hilariously meta how he demands everyone see Germaine as a human being while insisting in the same sentence that she's a flat comic book "everywoman" character. All we need now is for J.I.M. to appear in the episodes as himself, and it will become the web animation equivalent of Dave Sim's Cerebus.
Vocal Evolution: Foamy originally spoke with a faster, deeper voice, and with little emotion, too. This changed over time.
The Voiceless: Mutie
Who Writes This Crap?: Foamy asks this near the end of "The Jiggly Butt".
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In "Reboot Button," Foamy mentions he's had 632 owners over a 400 year lifetime and has granted the reboot button to only three other owners after offering it to Germaine. He let the others self-destruct from their own stupidity.
- The ones that didn't self-destruct were destroyed by someone else (in fact, Foamy spent a significant portion of Germaine's allotted ten years on the fence about whether or not she deserved the Reboot Button; the episode opens with Germaine complaining about getting shot at, and Foamy offhandedly griping about incompetent assassins).
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Germaine does after returning from the road.
- Also, now a Woman in White, as opposed to being a gothic Woman in Black.